The Trouble With Christmas
by AEM77
Summary: Christmastime in Haven can only mean trouble...
1. Chapter 1

"Parker, you better come take a look at this," Nathan beckoned to his partner from the window in their shared office.

"Holy winter wonderland, Batman. Guess we better call it an early day if we want to make it home before we're snowed in."

Nathan gave her a small nod and went out into the bullpen to alert the other officers that the blizzard was moving in more quickly than anticipated. Audrey heard an excited 'Whoop!' from the normally sedated Stan as he all but ran toward the station's exit.

"Let me transfer any calls into the station to my cell and then I'll give you a ride back to your apartment."

"Don't worry about it, Nathan." Audrey answered him. "I drove today. I'll make it back fine."

"Parker, your car will be about as useful as a sled in this snow. I put the snow chains on the Bronco this morning. Trust me on this one."

Riding back to the Gull through a true Maine blizzard, Audrey decided, was almost as beautiful as it was perilous. As promised, Nathan's snow chains kept the ancient truck firmly on the pavement, but the same could not be said for the other spattering of cars on the road. Twice Nathan had had to swerve to just miss oncoming cars that had skidded out of control. She had initially though he'd been being overprotective offering her a ride, but as she relaxed against the passenger door and occupied herself with taking in the picturesque wintery scenery, she was grateful he'd insisted.

At long last they pulled up to the parking lot of the Grey Gull. It was absolutely empty and covered in many inches of fresh fat wet snow so that the Bronco acted more as a snow plow than a vehicle as Nathan maneuvered them toward the stairs to her apartment. When they were about 10 yards away, he put the car into park.

"Sorry, but you'll have to walk the rest of the way. Or should I say swim," he gave her a wry smirk. "If I go any further I don't think I'll be able to back her out of here."

"That's no problem. I'll get soaked on the way in but I'll just strip down as soon as I'm through the door," Audrey bustled around in the cab of the truck getting her many bags together. Nathan gave a rather audible gulp in response to the visual her pronouncement induced, but if she noticed she didn't let on and turned to smile at him goofily when she finally got her oversized trapper hat and mittens on. The effect was so ridiculous, Nathan's mind immediately went from amorous to affectionate, a jump he frequently experienced when thinking of his partner, and he smiled sweetly at her and said in as serious a tone as he could muster, "Good luck, Parker. We're all rooting for you."

This made her laugh, and it seemed to Nathan the sound continued to echo through the truck even as he watched her trudge slowly along through the snow to her apartment. She turned back a few times to throw him a silly grin and he waited patiently till she had unlocked and passed through her front door before putting the truck into reverse and carefully steering it along the tracks he'd made minutes earlier that were already beginning to disappear beneath a fresh blanket of snow.

When she got through her door as advertised she stripped down to her underwear leaving her wet clothes in a heap on the doormat. After pulling on her warmest and fluffiest sweats and getting a fire started in her fireplace she curled up on her couch with a warm cocoa and lost herself to watching the flames dance and crackle. Life had been pretty good in Haven recently, Audrey reflected. The troubles, which had been escalating all summer long, seemed to have taken a page from the rest of the town and were entering that state of semi-hibernation that comes upon a summer tourist town in the winter. The streets were emptier and the work was slower, but for once in her life Audrey didn't begrudge the slow pace or the normalcy. She still didn't have any answers about who or what she was, but somehow the terror these thoughts usually brought on seemed muted, like the thick heavy snow outside were grounding and insulating her from the weird supernatural forces that would control her.

Maybe the nicest change the winter had brought to Haven was in her partner. The usually moody and stoic Nathan Wuornos had become downright chipper in recent weeks as Christmas approached. She'd known he favored this time of year but had not expected to find him so wholly transformed. Twice in the last week alone she'd heard him laughing outright. Not the chuckles or chortles he usually had for things he found amusing or ridiculous but full out belly laughter. True once had been at her expense as she tried desperately to find words to compliment Laverne's truly terrible fruitcake that she'd taken a regretfully large bite of. But she found it impossible to be angry with him when his eyes were shining so brightly and his handsome mouth was stretched in such an impossibly wide grin.

She was just beginning to fall into a light sleep, with images of blue smiling eyes and white heavy snowflakes dancing behind her eyelids when she was roused awake by the harsh buzz of her cell phone. "Hello?" she asked groggily.

"Audrey," Duke's voice pleaded urgently. "I know there's about 2 feet of snow on the ground outside, but you need to get to the Cape Rouge right now."

"Duke?" Audrey asked with concern, "What is it? What's going on?"

"Oh not much. Just thought you'd like to see my Christmas tree," Duke replied with a strangled laugh.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Audrey asked still a bit dazed from her near nap.

"Only problem is," Duke continued ignoring her, "that instead of a pine this year I opted for an apple tree…which is 10 feet tall…and growing out of the floor of my boat."

"Crap," Audrey muttered. "I'll be right over."


	2. Chapter 2

By the time she reached the Cape Rouge, Audrey could feel she'd sweat through her undershirt and had the uncomfortable sensation of feeling fresh sweat freezing on her brow. Even with the snow shoes Duke had directed her to in the shed behind the Grey Gull, it had taken her nearly a half hour to trudge the short quarter of a mile between her apartment and the harbor. "Duke," she yelled as she struggled her way onto the boat, "this better be good. I am frozen solid!"

"Audrey," Duke's head popped up from the cabin below, "so glad you could make it."

"Har-har," Audrey deadpanned, "seriously what's up? You've got an apple tree growing on…?" She stopped short as she nearly tripped over one of the branches of the tree in question. "What in the world?"

The deck of the Cape Rouge was pockmarked with tree branches stretching up through the wood. They rose to her knees creating a treacherous labyrinth between herself and the cabin steps. Her trip was made that much more dangerous by the heavy snow that continued to fall making the deck slick and icy. Duke looked on fondly as Audrey blustered across the deck towards him, poorly covering his amusement at her exertions.

"Alright, which troubled person did you piss off this time?" Audrey asked when she finally reached the safety of the cabin below. She made her way around the trunk of the large fruit tree looking up at its branches that stretched up and through the ceiling.

"I swear I have no idea," Duke said earnestly. "I've barely left the boat all day except to go over to Frank's to pick up some supplies to weather out the…weather," he finished lamely.

Audrey grinned at him, "Alright, well that helps narrow things down actually. Who else was there?"

"Jeez, Audrey. The place was packed. Hours before a big storm, lots of folks picking up provisions," Duke closed his eyes tightly to aid his memory, "Frank obviously. That guy _does_ hate me, but he has for years so I don't think today would be any different. Gladys King. She _adores_ me, so I doubt she's to blame. The Denbrough brothers. I remember because they were arguing but there's nothing new about that. Richard Bachman. Dude's definitely strange, but I don't think I did anything to piss him off. And maybe a handful of others. Crap, Audrey. I can't remember. I wasn't paying much attention, little preoccupied with Snowmagedon, you know?"

"Well at least that gives us someplace to start." Audrey sighed. "See if you can't remember anything else while I give Nathan a call and fill him in." She got out her cell and was pleased to see her service was still working.

After the 4th ring, Nathan picked up with an exasperated, "What is it, Parker?"

"Jeez, sorry to bug you," Audrey answered wondering where this new attitude was coming from, " Just thought you'd like to know that Duke's got an apple tree growing out of the Cape Rouge."

"Pear," corrected Duke.

"What?" Audrey and Nathan responded in unison.

"Pear tree," Duke repeated. "Asian pear to be exact. And they're delicious to boot," he finished taking a bite of one of the fruits.

"Okay, _pear_ tree growing out of his boat," Audrey said into the phone. "Duke spit that out! We don't know what it might do to you." Duke's eyes got wide for a moment while he realized the truth of what she'd said and he turned on his heal to spit the masticated fruit into the sink.

"Okay, this is beginning to make some sense," Nathan replied with a laugh.

"It is?" Audrey asked bewildered.

"Sorry I was curt with you when I picked up, but I've just spent the last 2 hours over at Joe Hanlon's place trying to figure out why his chickens have stopped clucking and started 'mais'ing and I'm driving now to Gladys King's to clear her living room of pigeons. She said she went down for a nap and when she woke the place was filled with them." He laughed again. "Guess it all makes sense now."

"How does any of that make sense?" Audrey asked.

"It's the Days of Christmas song, Parker. Don't you see? Duke's got the pear tree, probably a partridge around there too somewhere I'd guess. Joe's got French hens. 'Mais' is French for corn; girls were just asking for their dinner," he laughed again, "and Gladys has the doves. Someone's bringing the song to life. Pretty innocuous as far as troubles go, that is unless I crash my truck driving around in this blizzard."

"Crap. So that means we've got, what 5 more of these to sort out?"

"More like 9 Parker. It's the _12_ Days of Christmas." Nathan answered laughing at her over the phone.

"It is? I could have sworn it was 8." Nathan imagined he could picture Audrey wrinkling her brow in confusion. "Hey Duke!" She yelled to their friend who was still rinsing his mouth out over the sink. "How many days of Christmas are there?"

"Seriously?" Duke asked looking back at her. "Twelve, Audrey. There are 12 days of Christmas."

"Huh," Audrey said to herself. "Well that sucks, even more messes to clean up, I guess."

"You and Duke work on trying to figure out who might be causing this," Nathan continued. "I'll go sort out Mrs. King and swing by to pick you up when I've finished."

"Alright, see you soon." Audrey replied.

"What about my boat?" Duke asked, sensing the partners were wrapping up their conversation without properly addressing his involuntary home remodeling.

"Tell Duke to settle down," Nathan replied having heard Duke through the phone. "I'll send Dwight out to the Rouge as soon as he's available."

"Dwight's on his way," Audrey told Duke as she closed her phone.

"Good. That's good." Duke replied. Then he added, "That's all Nathan said? He didn't have any sarcastic comment to make about any of this?"

"No." Audrey replied. "Why would he?"

"I don't know. It's just, Nathan's been weird lately. Have you noticed? I saw him at Rosemary's the other day and he bought me a coffee when I couldn't find my wallet." Duke finished and looked at her expectantly.

Audrey laughed. "Duke, Nathan's a good guy. He does stuff like that all the time. Besides it Christmastime, you know how he loves this time of year."

"No. I know how he _hates_ this time of year. I mean sure when we were kids he loved it, all kids love Christmas. But since his mom died, he's always hated the holidays. I don't think the Wuornos' even celebrated Christmas after that."

This gave Audrey pause. If Nathan hated Christmas, then what was up with all his good cheer of late? If this was some other sort of trouble, she was going to scream. He certainly hadn't been acting 'troubled'. His merriment seems genuine enough to her, although she couldn't deny it was out of character. Audrey shook her head a bit to clear it and then turned to Duke. "One mystery at a time." She said. "Now concentrate. Who else might have been at Frank's?"


	3. Chapter 3

"That," said Duke pointing with disgust, "is the creepiest thing that I have ever seen". Inside the cooler at Frank's, cellophane wrapped turkeys sat neatly in a row. The scene almost looked normal until periodically one of the birds would let out a warble and begin rocking to and fro. "And remember Nathan, I saw your pantomime to "Don't Worry Be Happy" in our 3th grade talent show.

For a moment it looked like Nathan was going to retaliate with his own pointed barb, but instead he just smiled good naturedly at Duke and walked over to ask Frank some follow up questions. "See! That's exactly what I'm talking about. What the hell was that? I bring up what has become known in Haven Elementary circles as the 'McFerrin Fiasco' and he just smiles and walks away? Something is very wrong with him, Audrey. And it's freaking me out."

"Yeah," Audrey agreed, "that was definitely strange." She looked pointedly at the back of her partner's sandy blonde head as if the answers to his new Duke acceptance were written there. Could Nathan be under the influence of someone troubled? Sure she'd be immune, but wouldn't Duke be affected or the guys down at the station? She was roused from trying to recollect any odd, or odder than usual, behavior down at the precinct by a loud squawking sound from the cooler. "Okay let's focus on the song trouble for now, who knows maybe it's related to whatever's going on with Nathan."

They had already been heading down to Frank's shop to begin their investigation when the call from the man in question came through to Nathan's cell. It seemed that even in a town like Haven, squawking frozen poultry was enough to warrant a call to the police. Duke had come along for the ride. Not wanting to be around while Dwight did whatever it was he did to 'clean' and as an eyewitness to the presumed ground zero of the Days of Christmas affliction, the partners had thought he'd be an asset to their investigation. That was until they'd walked into the small grocery store. Duke had not been kidding about Frank's animosity towards him.

"What do you want, Crocker?" he sneered as they entered the front doors.

"Relax old man. I'm with them," Duke indicated to Nathan and Audrey.

"I see your ways finally caught up to you, boy," Frank said to Duke. "Make sure you lock him up for a good long time officers," he told Nathan and Audrey.

"All-righty," said Audrey shooing Duke further into one of the aisles and out of the old grocer's line of vision as Nathan addressed Frank, "Actually sir, we're hear responding to your call about some trouble with your poultry."

"What did you do to piss him off?" Audrey whispered when they were well out of view of the front counter.

"I stole a Twix bar."

"What? Today? Why?" Audrey asked incredulously.

"In the 4th grade," Duke answered looking at her like she was nuts, "Because I was hungry. Old man Frank really knows how to hold a grudge."

When they'd finally finished questioning Frank and loaded the offending turkeys onto the back of the Bronco, wrapped tightly in a blanket to muffle their calls, the 3 climbed inside and began heading back towards the water.

"Well not too much new information," Nathan sighed. "Frank did give me a few more names of people who might have been in around the time you were there, Duke. I say we call it a night, let this storm pass and see what we can figure out in the morning. If anymore troubles pop up, I'm sure I'll hear about them."

"Maybe there won't be anything for awhile. I mean '5 golden rings' is when the song's tempo slows down, right?" Duke asked looking expectantly at Nathan and Audrey in the front seat. Both looked back at him with blank stares. "You know, Fiiiiiiive goooooolden riiiiiings," he sang in a shaky off-key voice. Audrey's blank stare turned to a grin at his singing but Nathan only raised one eyebrow and glanced back at him through the rearview mirror with distaste.

"What?" Duke asked him.

"I didn't say anything," Nathan replied.

"Yeah, but you were looking at me funny!"

Nathan looked about ready to launch into some retort that the 2 had probably thrown back and forth at each other for decades, when he cast his eyes sideways to Audrey and then back to Duke. "Sorry, Duke." He said earnestly, "I didn't realize."

Audrey shot Duke a concerned look over her shoulder, which he returned with a puzzled shake of his head and the 3 rode on in silence for the rest of the ride to the marina.

"You really think Dwight's been able to clean up my boat in just a few hours with this blizzard going on?" Duke asked.

"He's good at what he does," Nathan answered simply.

"He better be. You 2 can expect a bill for any damages I find," Duke admonished wagging his finger at them.

"Yeah right," said Audrey laughing. "More like you can expect a bill from _us _for Dwight's services."

"You're joking, right?" Duke asked looking nervously between the partners. "She's joking, right Nathan?"

"Goodnight, Duke" the 2 responded in unison and Duke stepped out of the truck with a defeated, "Night" and a wave over his shoulder.

As soon as the door shut behind him, Audrey turned in her seat to fully take in her partner beside her.

"What?" said Nathan glancing awkwardly back at her.

"How are you feeling, Nathan?" she asked looking at him with concern.

"Fine. I'm feeling fine," he answered a little warily.

"Mm-hmm," she said, "and nothing new has happened recently? No unexpected visitors or run-ins?"

"No," said Nathan slowly looking at her with concern now. "Why? What's up?"

"That is exactly what I want to know, Nathan. What _is_ up? You do realize you missed about 100 opportunities to make snide comments at Duke tonight, right? You laughed at his jokes? You let him tease you?"

"He wasn't teasing me. Don't put it that way. It sounds weird." Nathan deflected.

"Aha! So you don't deny being nice to him."

"No, detective," Nathan smiled over to her, "I don't deny it."

"So don't you think that's a little odd? You're never nice to Duke."

"And you think I might be influenced by someone troubled," said Nathan finally putting the pieces together. "It's not a trouble, Audrey. I know why I'm being nice to him and it has nothing to do with a troubled person."

"Alright, then why?"

He paused a moment looking over at her, "Let me ask you this. Do you like it, your closest friends getting along better? Does it make you happy."

"Yes," she answered simply. Because it did make her happy, happier than she had realized.

"Then don't worry about it, okay?" Nathan smiled and pulled up into the lot of the Grey Gull. They'd arrived without Audrey even noticing. "Looks like you're going to have to swim for it again," he told her with a grin. "Goodnight, Audrey."

"Goodnight, Nathan."


	4. Chapter 4

Audrey opened her eyes blinking against the bright light of the morning. A quick squint at the window confirmed that last night's blizzard had resulted in a complete whiteout. She was about to turn over and pull the covers back over her head when she caught a glimpse of her clock face, which was persistently blinking a red '12:00' back at her.

"Damn," she muttered. What time was it anyway? She'd guessed it was much later than when she normally got up with her alarm, but then why hadn't Nathan called. Even with the blizzard they were in the middle of a trouble case. He wouldn't just take the day off. And if he'd gotten to work and seen she wasn't in, wouldn't he have tried to get a hold of her? She sat up and fumbled on the nightstand for her cell trying unsuccessfully to hold back a sudden wave of panic that was surging within her. The roads had been terrible last night and he hadn't called to say he'd gotten back to his place in one piece. Audrey quickly located Nathan in her contacts and hit 'send'.

"Morning, sleepyhead," came Nathan's voice sounding very much like someone who was not mangled and frozen on the side of the road.

"Nathan," she smiled with relief. "What's going on? It's…" a quick glance down at the phone, "10:30. Why didn't you call?"

"Sorry. Thought I'd let you get some rest."

"Thanks, I guess," she replied feeling both thankful and irritated he'd given her the morning off. "Any news on our troubled Christmas fan?"

"Well, the good news is we've made it past the birds."

"Come again?"

"You know, the song. It's about someone sending their true love gifts for Christmas, and except for those rings Duke was so enamored with last night, the first 7 gifts are all birds: partridges, doves, swans. Always seemed like a weird way to say you care, to me. But thankfully we're through the woods, or the skies I guess, for now."

"Ooookay," said Audrey thinking for the hundredth time what a strange man Nathan Wuornos was. "So if that's the good news, what's the bad news?"

"The bad news, Parker" replied Nathan more seriously, "is that these are getting more dangerous." He paused, "Well, the rings were sort of funny, actually. Bill Denbrough woke up this morning with some new piercings, ears, lip, eyebrow and other," he paused, "more exotic locales."

"Ouch." Audrey laughed.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed. "I shouldn't laugh, but Bill's always been kind of a jerk, so…I've actually got Duke with him now trying to convince him he was at the Gull last night overindulging. Not sure how we're going to convince him he got all that done voluntarily when the last thing he remembers is going to bed early last night sober as a judge."

"Look at you and Duke working together," Audrey teased, "just like the Hardy boys."

"Funny. So does that make you Nancy Drew?"

"Alright that's enough name calling," Audrey laughed. "That takes care of the rings. Where do all these birds come in?"

"Right, Denbourgh's goose farm. Bill's brother Sam woke up this morning to find all the geese dead. I guess that's 'geese a-laying'. Guy's devastated, place had been in the family for ages, not to mention all the interrupted Christmas dinners. Bill had dozens of orders in place for tomorrow."

"Well it sounds like a pretty crappy morning if you're a Denbourgh or a fan of Christmas goose, but otherwise I'd say we've gotten off pretty easy so far. I thought you said these were getting dangerous?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah I did," Nathan answered simply.

And for the first time in the conversation Audrey became aware of voices and beeps coming from the background of Nathan's line. "Nathan, where are you?"

"Haven Memorial."

"What? Are you okay? We've been on the phone this whole time and you're just telling me this now!" Audrey had jumped out of bed in her tirade and was quickly double tasking chastising Nathan and getting ready to head over the hospital having momentarily forgotten her car was back at the station.

"Parker, relax. I'm fine. It's just a cautionary check-up," he reassured. "Turns out 'swans a-swimming' meant flooding the Swann's residence. Luckily I was already on the scene. The father was at Frank's yesterday and when I heard the name I figured something like this could be coming so I went over to their place first thing this morning. Living room filled up pretty quickly though. Not sure what would have happened if I weren't there to shoot out the windows."

"Nathan. I want you to stay at that hospital until you've been cleared to leave, do you understand me?" Audrey warned.

"Yes, ma'am," he smiled to himself at her concern.

"And then I want you to meet me at the station. You've given me an idea for how we might solve this thing."


	5. Chapter 5

"Where is he?" Audrey murmured for the third time in as many minutes.

"Audrey, relax." Duke commanded snatching the pencil that she had been tapping incessantly on her desk from her fingers. "He's probably just being held up because of the weather. We did just have a major blizzard less than 12 hours ago."

Duke knew he must have said the wrong thing because Audrey took out her cell phone again and held it to her ear looking more and more worried as she received no answer. To be honest, Duke was starting to worry himself. Audrey had called him forever ago saying she needed a ride to the station to work on the Christmas trouble case. It had taken him an hour to get to the Gull and they'd been waiting for Nathan to arrive at the police station now for nearly 2.

"I'm going to call the hospital," Audrey declared aloud, wondering to herself when she had become so preoccupied with Nathan's safety. Wasn't it just hours ago she'd been convinced he'd been in a terrible wreck? Clearly he was going to have to stay within arm's reach of her from now on if she was going to have any piece of mind.

"No need," came Nathan's voice from the doorframe.

"Nathan," Audrey exclaimed, forcefully subduing her impulse to enfold him in a hug. "Where have you been? It's been hours since we talked."

"Well I was warned under threat of punishment to stay put at the hospital till I was cleared for discharge," he grinned. "Just got the all clear a half hour ago". Nathan shot an odd glance at Duke who had stepped up to place a hand onto Nathan's shoulder, clearly having lost his battle to subdue a physical expression of his relief at seeing the other man alive and well.

"We were kind of worried sick, man," said Duke in explanation, stepping aside as Nathan made his way into the office to sit behind his old desk sitting kitty corner to Audrey's. "What took so long?"

Nathan looked reluctant to reply but Duke and Audrey both stood silently staring at him waiting for an answer. "Just had to get my body temperature up a bit. Not a big deal."

"You had hypothermia?" Audrey exclaimed. Forget 'arm's reach,' she was going to have to keep Nathan _in_ her arms for both their sakes.

"A very _mild_ case, yes." Nathan replied trying to emphasize to Audrey the very temperate nature of his condition. "And, I am 100% in the clear," Nathan vaguely gestured at himself with his hands, presumably to convey his exceptional health. "So what's the big breakthrough? How do we solve this whole '12 Days of Christmas' thing?" Nathan picked up the pencil Duke had snatched from Audrey earlier and looked up expectantly at her.

Audrey looked ready to launch into a further discussion of his health, but decided against it. "Okay," she began. "Remember how you deduced the Swann's would be targets of this thing when Frank gave you Mr. Swann's name? Well as I see it we only have 5 more troubles to get through and a half dozen or so names of potential troubled people or victims. If we can try to guess which days of the song go with which people, that might narrow down our suspect list. At the very least it will put us in position to help the victims if these things keep getting more dangerous."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Nathan smiled proudly at her. "I'll get on the database and see what kind of info I can pull up on our names. Duke, see if you can't come up with some possible scenarios that would fit the days of the song. So far, outside of your pear tree, they haven't been very traditional interpretations."

"And I'll work between the 2 of you, seeing if I can't pair some of these folks to our 5 remaining days," said Audrey.

"Anyone mind if I put on some Christmas music while we work?" asked Nathan.

Duke looked at Nathan like he'd sprouted another head and turned to share a look of concern with Audrey. But Audrey wasn't looking at him. She was beaming at Nathan like he'd hung the moon.

"Clearly the crazy is catching," he muttered to himself.

Several hours later their hard work was paying off. A quick call to Brady Kincaid, proud proprietor of _Mighty Maids Inc._ located in neighboring Derry_, _prepared the Kincaid family for the sudden and somewhat unwelcome arrival of 8 of Brady's employees in their kitchen. And a similarly simple phone call to the Piper Shore retirement center, run by one Anne Dugan who had happened to pop into Frank's the preceding day, prepared them for the streak of plumbing incidences that followed.

They hadn't been able to predict the outbreak of uncontrolled dancing that had taken place at the Good Shepard Church's annual Christmas Eve dance when Betty Snell involuntarily jitterbugged for the whole congregation while her cousin Steve looked on in terror as his own hands beat out a rhythm on the bongos against his will. Thankfully though the trouble had subsided on its own after a few minutes and they had had the good fortune to knock out 2 days and 2 of their suspects in one go.

"That just leaves 'lords a-leaping,' said Duke looking down at his notes.

"And Rich Bachman and Joey Stillson," added Nathan.

"Leaping," Duke said under his breath, racking his brain for any idea of what this trouble could manifest as. "leap frog, leap year, leaping lizards…Hey maybe its got to do with lizards? Nathan, anything on either of those 2 on lizards?"

"What?" asked Nathan. "I don't think so. Bachman is the basketball coach over at the high school and Joey's his star player. Maybe the kid's got one for a pet?"

"Well they're our last 2 suspects," Audrey reasoned. "If we stick to them, one of them should have something happen to them sooner rather than later."

"And then whoever's left is our guy," said Duke.

"Right," said Audrey, "so where are they now?"

Duke and Nathan shared a worried look and said in unison, "The Christmas Eve basketball game."

Just then Nathan's cell ran. "Wournos," he answered. He ran a weary hand through his hair as he listened to the caller. "We're on our way," he finished hanging up the phone.

"Situation at the high school," he told them. "Joey Stillson and the varsity boys basketball are on the roof threatening to jump."


End file.
